Slideshow: Michael Ward

Michael Ward, a former star photographer on this newspaper who has died aged
82, was a lifelong amorist with a remarkable life story. He had three
notable advantages: a formidable talent as a news and portrait photographer,
a striking physical appearance and a tenderly devoted fifth and final wife,
the renowned professional dancer Elizabeth Seal whom he first photographed
in 1956 and married 15 years later.

His work, highly regarded and frequently displayed in leading galleries, was
admired for its sensitivity, realism and unrestructured beauty; much of it,
indeed, seen as the bearer of irrefragable truth about his subjects, many of
them showbusiness celebrities with adaptable images and artificial personae.
All this is apparent in his book, Mostly Women, a memoir that contains more
than 200 photographs, and in his arresting work for The Sunday Times, London
Evening Standard and many other publications.